The deadline for the submission of proposals is 1 August 2014.

The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne are organising a workshop on Contemporary issues in Indian Public Law on the 10th and 11th of April 2015 in India.

This is a call for proposals for workshop papers on any particular aspects of the following topics (particular examples have been provided in brackets against each topic—they merely illustrate the topic and are not meant to restrict its scope):

1. General reflections on Indian constitutional law (constitutional conventions in the Indian constitution, the basic structure doctrine, the autonomy of administrative law, historical issues)

2. Citizenship (Unique Identity Cards, migration, refugees, diaspora)

3. Rights and Directive Principles (horizontality, scope, conflict of rights, emergency powers)

4. Separation of powers: 

 (a) Parliament and State Assemblies (legislative functioning, executive control, committees)

 (b) The Justice System (delays, court management, writs, SLPs, lower judiciary, tribunalisation, rule of law, police and prosecution reforms, access to courts, standing)

 (c) The Executive (impact of coalition politics, increasing powers, accountability)

5. Subsidiarity (Kashmir and North-East exceptionalism, asymmetric federalism, panchayati raj)

6. Administrative law (control of discretion, grounds of review, scope of review)

Proposals for other papers on contemporary issues in Indian public law are also welcome

A forum for high-quality Indian Public Law scholarship

We expect a close-knit group to discuss about 12-15 original unpublished papers over 2 days in the workshop. This will be followed by a conference with a larger number of participants on the 12th of April 2015. (Further information on the conference will be made available at a later date.) The papers will be published in an edited collection by the OUP. We hope this will become the first edition of ‘Contemporary Issues in Indian Public Law’, which we will hope to bring out every 4 years or so. The aim is to provide a platform for international quality research on Indian public law, which is usually published in foreign journals at the moment because of a dearth of academic-led and peer-reviewed world-class law journals in India.

Submission of proposals

The proposals should be no longer than 750 words and submitted in PDF and Word format by email to Ms Kathryn Taylor at [email protected] . Please put ‘Contemporary Issues in Indian Public Law Workshop’ in the subject line. The deadline for the submission of proposals is 1 August 2014.

Selection of papers

The proposals and the final papers will be reviewed blind by a panel of experts. In the unlikely event that the final submission falls far below the quality promised in the proposal, the organisers reserve the right to reject it.

Selected papers will have to be submitted by 1 February 2015 to allow discussants sufficient time to prepare a response. The aim will be to circulate all papers to the attendees at least a month before the workshop. Bursaries are available for reasonable travel and accommodation costs of contributors whose home institutions are unable to provide necessary funding.

Please address all queries to Ms Kathryn Taylor at [email protected]

Dr Farrah Ahmed (Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne)